A Look at the Lynx/Phoenix, Thorpe Missing

#1 posting 6.19.2006
Your Daily Dose of Girls Basketball News & Information

ALL STAR ACTION
SD/Nebraska
The South Dakota Girls beat Nebraska 105-84. Abby Kratovil, Bennett County and headed to South Dakota State was MVP for SD and had 18 points. Yvonne Turner, Bellevue East, was MVP for Nebraska. Here is more from the Yankton Press & Dakotan.
MN
In the Inner-City Classic Team Faith beat Truth 54-30. No other information was available.

COACHING NEWS
COLLEGE
Amy Brown has been named the next coach at Tennessee Tech. Brown has been an assistant at TTU for 10 years. Here is more in the Ohio Valley press release.

THE LIST
VERBALS

AAU ROSTERS added Green Bay Metro 17

COACHING OPENINGS

CALENDAR

A LOOK AT THE LYNX
MINNESOTA
STARTERS
Amber Jacobs, 7, 11, 63.6, .273
Seimone Augustus 32, 22, 145.5, .636
Kristen Mann 4, 5, 80.0, .400
Timika Williams 12, 12, 100.0, .417
Nicole Ohlde 22, 16, 137.5, .688
BENCH
Adrian Williams 11, 12, 91.7, .500
Svetlana Abrosimova 2, 1, 200.0, 1.000
Megan Duffy 4, 4, 100.0, .500
Tynesha Lewis 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Team? (24 sec) 0, 1, 0.0, .000

PHOENIX
STARTERS
Cappie Pondexter, 22, 22, 100.0, .455
Diana Taurasi, 23, 30, 76.7, .333
Kristen Rasmussen, 0, 3, 0, 0.0
Kamila Vodichkova 6, 5, 120.0, .600
Jennifer Derevjanik 7, 7, 100.0, .429
BENCH
Kelly Miller, 6, 5, 120.0, .600
Jennifer Lacy 5, 6, 83.3, .600
Crystal Smith 8, 4, 200.0, 1.000
Belinda Snell 3, 1, 300.0, 1.000
Kayte Christensen 2, 2, 100.0, .500
Bridget Pettis 0, 1, 0.0, .000

BY THE NUMBERS
Minnesota 94, 85, 110.6, .518
Phoenix 82, 86, 95.3, .430
What a differance a day makes, or in this case two days. MN improved on it's offensive performance by +37 in pp100, +.140 in floor %, and defensively the #s were better too with +13 in dpp100, and .052 in dfloor%. MN came out flaming hot to start scoring on 8/9 of their first possessions and led 19-9. Phx had 2 droughts of 4 possessions in the quarter, MN did not have any misfortune. In the first quarter MN scored 4 points twice on a possession. On possession #5 Timika Williams scored on a lay up and was fouled, she missed the free throw, but Amber Jacobs got the offensive board. There were two more missed shots in the possession, but Ohlde, and Timika Williams kept it alive. Eventually Williams scored again on a lay up for four points in one team possession. Late on possession 18 Ohlde made a lay up and was fouled. She too missed her charity toss and once again Jacobs rescued the ball with an offensive board. Timika Williams finished off this possession just like in possession 5 with a layup.
In the second quarter MN strung together 6 possessions in a row, but then there was a patch were MN was connected on only 1/8. Phx was not able to take a huge advantage of that dry spell. Phx had another 0/4 stretch. The second half had no major droughts or major runs by either team.
MN turned the lay ups up a notch with a 16/25 ratio compared to Phx at 8/16. That may explain why MN dominated the paint 54-24.
Another interesting note--this game was the fastest paced, or at least the game that had the most possessions with 85. Oddly enough it the highest possession game before this was on Friday in San Antonio with 82. MN has been over 80 possessions only 3 times this year. They average 78 possessions a game, or about 19.5 a quarter.
One item jumps out and that is Taurasi's pp100 and floor %. Is it the case the Taurasi is a product of the overhype machine? She gets her points, but how efficient is she? She had 5 of the 11 Phx turnovers, and shot below freezing 31.8%. Her floor % was just slightly better at 33.3%. In a head to head comparison with Augustus, it is Augustus tonight hands down with 145.5 pp100 almost double Taurasi's. Same with floor%.

WHERE IS THORPE?
He might be golfing with Waldo on the Florida Links, but we are not sure. Once his morsals of wisdom come in we will get it up.

GOT NEWS? COMMENTS?
let me know by dropping me an email located in my profile.

Next up
Later today with the MN Stars Antl 15s vs Team WI Select 14s. I have some photos of TWS14 from the Menomonie tournament and will use the photos of that game to indicate who players are. The MN Stars Antl have photos from their 15 championship game which should be ready to go on Wednesday. My reliable source on photos is usually delivered on Tuesday mail.